Liverpool band celebrate 25 years with charity drive
2015 sees Fugitive celebrating their 25th anniversary as a band. Fugitive were formed in 1990. Their live debut together came early in 1991, (The same year that the National Association of Bikers with a Disability -NABD – formed) in a smoky room in Crosby, Liverpool in front of about 40 people.
It was the first in a series of approximately 1,000 shows the band have performed to date. Along the way, Fugitive has seen various line ups, but today sees the original song writing partnership still intact, with Mikee and Ranko – joined some 12(ish) years ago by Wils and Paul T – to complete the band.
The lads continue to fly the flag for British Hard Melodic Rock and we let them take up the story: “Rock is not dead – It lives on in us and in the mad bunch of people who come to see us when we put on a show”. Fugitive produce great original guitar based melodic rock songs. “It’s sometimes been a struggle to find venues willing to allow original tracks in the set, and there have been times when we saw the end of the Original British Rock Band as we know it, looking like a real possibility, but we haven’t given in – we continue to fight rock’s corner. “
This is where their links to the Bike scene and to NABD in particular, comes in. Saying: “The rally scene has taken us under its wing and given us a home…. Somewhere in the fairly recent past, the Live Music scene shifted its focus away from original acts, to supporting tribute and cover bands, as times got harder for everybody, and people had less spare cash to spend on a night out – competition for audiences grew, and venues had to guarantee a full house, or risk closing its doors.
“They saw Tribute’s as the answer. Interest in original bands and original music, from a band signed to an independent label (not a mainstream known name)– became less and less, even for a band like Fugitive, lucky enough to have the following of a great many lovely people. (Thank you all!). All the band are bikers, (either part time or commuters! – some are members of other bike clubs, but all are members of our own Fugitive Rally Club!) and a lot of our mates are bikers too, so we found ourselves invited to play at a number of Rallies, bringing us into the Biker Music Scene. Our interest in, and love of motorcycles found its way into our music. Many years ago, (hard to remember so far back!) Mikee met Rick Hulse (NABD Chairman) through a gig performed on the Isle Of Man for a well-known Bike magazine.”
He was impressed with NABD’s mission to help disabled people to enjoy the freedom and independence of motorcycling, hence the band set out to support NABD events. Through these early links, Fugitive began their connection to NABD by performing at the Autumn Nabdness event in Oxfordshire, some 15 years ago. Since then, NABD have regularly supported Fugitive and welcomed our original tracks at their shows, within our live set, giving us the chance to grow as a band and to make a lot of new friends.
And as they put it: “With 2015 being our 25th Anniversary, we wanted to do something very special, that would mark the celebration for us a band, but also, hopefully, would make a difference, and give something tangible back to the Bike Scene that has supported us and given us so much pleasure. How do you give something back to such a wide group of people? – we can’t afford to buy everybody a drink…and say cheers!”
